If you have Windows Vista in your system, you might know the performance overhead associated with it especially when you have limited memory resources. In case, if you have installed Vista just because your system met the minimum memory requirement (512 MB of RAM), then probably you will be having tough time using your machine. The performance of the system may go down drastically if the memory gets overloaded. Adding an extra RAM is the best & simple solution to solve this problem. But, sometimes you might not be in a position to add an extra RAM either due the cost factor or due to the non-availability of expansion slots in the motherboard. To overcome this problem, Windows Vista ships with a new concept called ReadyBoost.
Readyboost is a feature provided by Windows Vista to boost the performance of the Operating system by adding more high speed memory using non-volatile flash memory devices like USB (Universal Serial Bus) drives, SD cards & compact Flash. The performance of these flash drives as an additional cache is more compared to hard drives as they have better seek time. ReadyBoost relies on the advanced memory management feature provided by Windows Vista called ‘Super Fetch’ which allows the programs to load much quicker than they would on XP based PC’s. Not all flash drives can be used with ReadyBoost. Only flash devices which meet the imposed minimum requirements can be used with ReadyBoost. Below are the some of the main requirements for the device to be compatible with ReadyBoost
How to use?
Usage is pretty simple & straight forward. After you plug in the flash drive, the windows Autoplay dialog will pop up. If your device is compatible with ReadyBoost then you will find an option called ‘Speed up my system’ at the bottom of the dialog box. A click on it will take you to the properties tab of the removable device. Here you can select the amount of memory that you want to reserve for optimizing the performance of your system. You can use the rest of the memory for your file storage. You need to have a minimum of 235 MB of free space to use it with ReadyBoost. On the other way, a maximum of up to 4GB is allowed. The page file related data stored in the flash drive will also be backed up on the Hard disk. So, even if you remove the flash drive at any point, there won’t be any loss of information. This also makes it safe & secure.
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I am already with 2GB of inbuilt RAM in laptop and still struggling. I think the above application could be useful with desktop for me. Will check it out for sure.
~Sahil
ya i have tried using my Kingston data traveler, but it says pen drive not supported.
can you elaborate on wat hardware type ready boost and super fetch is supported?
@Sahil, Yeah. Its a pretty useful feature. Check it out.
@Abhishek, Your Kingston drive may not be ReadyBoost compatible. As per your request I have updated the requirements for the device to be compatible with ReadyBoost. Have a look. And also let me know if you have any other issues using the device.
Improve the performance of your Windows Vista using a ReadyBoost compatible USB drive | TechSagar…
Improve the performance of your windows vista operating system by using a readyboost compatible USB drive…
I still not in need of Vista, but if the case above I can satisfy my need than I’ll switch to Vista eventually… most of laptop nowadays has Vista pre-installed.
I wonder if there’s a similar third party solution for Windows XP users who are still reluctant to migrate to Vista? The performance hit is something that I’m sure many users are not willing to accept, especially if they don’t have the latest pimped up Quad Core ram guzzling monsters.
@Daemondash, as for as I know, there is no such feature in XP. Yeah, as you said, Vista will be a bitter experience if you don’t have a core two duo or quad core or something equivalent to that.
I have a 16GB Patriot and I am now in LOVE with ReadyBoost!!
Sagar,
Thanks for this info. My PC was slow in Vista so i installed XP SP2.
Will try this trick after installing VIsta and see how it works out…
For XP, you can use eBoostr to achieve the same thing.
i used to use something similar for windows xp. perhaps i should give that software a go. hard to work with only 256 mb of ram. :O
yo
I do not agree with what you said really….
please explain further a bit more for me :d
cheers
@zodiaclove, Where exactly you need more info ?. If you can tell me about that, then I will surely help you out.
Won’t your flash drive degrade pretty quickly if that temporary memory is accessed heavily?
@Hamilton, No. Just because of using the flash drive for readyboost,its life wont be shortened.
After using Vista for a month am not see any benefit of using it, except their “good looking”. Then I back to my XP pro
vista is good but i still love my XP